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The main thing this issue did for me was to remind me that I need to go pick up the last few issues of Astounding Wolf-Man, I had no idea Powerplex was in the Actioneers. The rest of it was only OK, this is one of the lesser Invincible issues I’ve read. I did like how Kirkman didn’t drop the Gravity Gun stuff from the last issue, I thought that was just a one-off joke, but he brought it back. Mark being all emo didn’t feel right though, I’m guessing this is leading to an ‘Invincible No More’ type situation, and then we’ll get a new Black Invincible like that teaser, well, teased. Oh yeah, and Rick and Shane from the Walking Dead showed up.

I'll be honest: I really didn't like this issue very much. It just felt like it was trying to do so much without committing itself to any one tangent and none of it felt very well developed. And while I understand that Mark was trying to wrestle with feelings of ineptitude as Invincible, it came across as very whiny and very woe-is-me, which, after so many issues of that being pretty much the only emoting he seems capable of pulling off, is starting to get a little boring.

On the other hand, as I have stated before, Kirkman always reads better in big chunks, so perhaps if I go back and read this entire story all in one setting, it will flow better.

Hunh. Yeah, this may not have been the best issue to jump on in singles. But having read the whole run up to now, there have been several other blah issues along the way too. Are we really building up to a new Invincible? That's kinda sad, I'm just getting to know this one.

Flynn the Pirate wrote:I'll be honest: I really didn't like this issue very much. It just felt like it was trying to do so much without committing itself to any one tangent and none of it felt very well developed. And while I understand that Mark was trying to wrestle with feelings of ineptitude as Invincible, it came across as very whiny and very woe-is-me, which, after so many issues of that being pretty much the only emoting he seems capable of pulling off, is starting to get a little boring.

On the other hand, as I have stated before, Kirkman always reads better in big chunks, so perhaps if I go back and read this entire story all in one setting, it will flow better.

But taken on it's own merits, this was something of a bust.

I think TWD is like that, as well. Much better story over 80-100pgs, rather than 20pgs.

I think it's questionable though--perhaps the main reason people feel books like this and WD are better reading in larger chunks is that they are essentially character-driven soap operas with a few Viltrumites or zombies here and there, and the single issues, quite smartly, leave the reader wanting more. That's what beings them back. If everything is tidier and even sort of wrapped up in individual arcs for the reader, I know from my own experience as a reader that it's easier to walk away having read tpbs.

What I'm saying is, of course the trades provide a more "completed" feeling when you finish one, even when the story continues on. Of course the single issues make the reader feel like he hasn't gotten full satisfaction yet--that's kind of the point of serial fiction and is in large part what drives those single issue sales to be later compiled into trade-form.

Asmodeus Jones wrote:I think it's questionable though--perhaps the main reason people feel books like this and WD are better reading in larger chunks is that they are essentially character-driven soap operas with a few Viltrumites or zombies here and there, and the single issues, quite smartly, leave the reader wanting more. That's what beings them back. If everything is tidier and even sort of wrapped up in individual arcs for the reader, I know from my own experience as a reader that it's easier to walk away having read tpbs.

What I'm saying is, of course the trades provide a more "completed" feeling when you finish one, even when the story continues on. Of course the single issues make the reader feel like he hasn't gotten full satisfaction yet--that's kind of the point of serial fiction and is in large part what drives those single issue sales to be later compiled into trade-form.

Def agree with the wanting more theory; that's the problem, too. I'm not disciplined enough to buy six issues without reading them.

Even if I was, with the internet (spoiler warnings such as they are), I wouldn't be able to tune everything out.

Schlemmer wrote:Def agree with the wanting more theory; that's the problem, too. I'm not disciplined enough to buy six issues without reading them.

Even if I was, with the internet (spoiler warnings such as they are), I wouldn't be able to tune everything out.

I guess it's a good problem?

Only a good problem when the creative team stays on schedule though.

Or in the cases of certain media-darling hacks, as long as they bother to finish what they start.

I think this issue has other problems rather than simply "would read better inside a tpb" that make for a sort of second-rate single issue experience. There's the repetitive Powerplex fight, where the "joke" has just gotten a little stale--I put that in quotes because it's not really a joke, but hopefully it's pretty much done with finally, and the the pages spent on Mark sort of not saying much about his guilt or sense of responsibility lead up to a very down-beat almost depressing last page. But besides maybe wrapping up the Powerplex subplot, not much new is added to the mix other than that.

I gotta be honest here too, the Dinosaurus issues were not my favorites either, though there were moments.